Greta Thunberg Weighs in on Australia's Bushfire Crisis | 22 Words

Over the past couple of months, Australia has been completely ravaged by devastating, out-of-control bushfires.

8 people have died, hundreds of homes have been destroyed, thousands of helpless animals have been killed, and millions of hectares of natural land have been completely burnt out.

This is clearly a climate change crisis, and now, the face of the climate-change movement, Swedish teen Greta Thunberg, has finally addressed the situation and has offered her insight into the devastating crisis the country is currently facing.

Keep scrolling to see what she had to say...

Greta Thunberg has become the face of the youth climate change movement.

The Swedish sixteen-year-old has been responsible for the global school strike movement, which began with weekly Friday school strikes to protest for climate change action.

Just a year ago, she was relatively unknown.

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 Greta would regularly sit on her own outside Swedish parliament, first staging a "School Strike for Climate" in August last year. In the weeks leading up to the country’s general election, Thunberg sat on the steps outside of the parliament building in Stockholm, holding up the now-iconic sign that read “Skolstrejk För Klimatet" — translating to “school strike for climate."

The teen sat outside the building during school hours for 3 weeks.

Her demands were that the Swedish government reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement. By sacrificing her education to protest for action, the teen began to conjure up attention and gain traction online.

Her unwavering commitment to the environment has woken the rest of the world.

While a little over a year ago, the name "Greta Thunberg" was relatively unknown, now, her's is the first name that springs to mind when you think of the climate change movement.

Thunberg is known for delivering blistering, matter-of-fact speeches about the urgency of what she calls the "climate crisis."

If we fast-forward to now, Thunberg continues to hold governments accountable during her powerful talks, which have seen her nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and placed in TIME's top one-hundred influential people in the world list.

Her message is clear: we need to act now.

Having whipped up a gigantic global youth movement, climate change is finally getting the attention it deserves, but Thunberg still believes that governments are the ones who still aren't listening. According to the United Nations, humanity has under twelve years to prevent a climate change crisis. A report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at the end of 2018 called for immediate “unprecedented changes" to all aspects of society.

If we do not act, the future, if there is one at all, will be very bleak.

Rising global temperatures pose a high risk of social and environmental disasters, including floods, drought, wildfires, and food shortages for millions of people across our planet.

And, in the last couple of months, Australia has been concrete evidence of this theory.

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 Starting in November this year, the country has been relentlessly ravaged by ferocious bushfires.

Areas of South Australia and the eastern state, New South Wales, have been hit the hardest.

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 8 people, including 2 volunteer firefighters, have tragically died in the blazes, and over 700 homes have been destroyed.

And not to mention the impact the fires have had on the wildlife.

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 Over 1000 koalas are estimated to have perished in the flames, and over eighty percent of their habitat has been destroyed, leaving many people to claim that the species are now "functionally extinct."

They are truly apocalyptic scenes.

Even in the unaffected coastal areas, a layer of toxic smoke has descended, suffocating cities and their residents. And, sadly, the fires show no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

They are the worst conditions that the country has seen in years.

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 And people are starting to ask questions - Why is this happening?

This isn't just a coincidence.

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 The devastating fires have been fueled by record-breaking high temperatures and months on end of severe drought.

Climate change is happening.

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 If this isn't evidence, then what is?

And, if there's one person who fights against climate change...

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 It's Greta Thunberg. Though she has initially remained silent on the serious situation down under, she has now offered her insight into the horrific conditions.

She has, once again, slammed the politicians in charge.

"Not even catastrophes like these seem to bring any political action. How is this possible?" She wrote alongside an Australian news report of the devastating fires to her 3.7 million Twitter followers.

She has blamed climate change for the deadly weather conditions.

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 "Because we still fail to make the connection between the climate crisis and increased extreme weather events and nature disasters like the #AustraliaFires That's what has to change. Now."

Her comments come just days after the Australian Prime Minister came under fire for taking a family vacation amid the bushfire crisis...

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 So many assume that her scathing tweet has been directly aimed at his abysmal response to the deadly fires.

Many Australians have applauded Greta for her comments...

And a high percentage seemed to agree with her on her stance on politicians' roles in the climate change battle. "To battle the climate crises we must get corruption out of our governments. The governments must work for the best interests of the earth and its inhabitants," one Twitter user wrote, while another simply put, "Thanks Greta - lets all keep up the pressure and awareness."

Yet, despite the good intentions behind her messages...

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 Tweeting isn't going to solve the climate change crisis that our planet is currently under attack from. Action needs to happen now before it's too late. Many different solutions to climate change have been put forward, but perhaps the most bizarre one was that we should all become cannibals... Keep scrolling for the full story.